Last week I traveled to Egypt and spoke with activists targeted for peaceful dissent. Some face many years in jail if the regime follows through on charges. The police and security service routinely torture detainees with techniques such electric shocks, beatings and rape. “To me, an Egyptian living in Egypt, I see no improvement in the human rights situation,” said Mohamed Zaree of the Cairo Institute of Human Rights Studies, winner of the 2017 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.

Civil society leaders told me they want the United States to keep the holds on the aid and to expand human rights conditions. “The military aid is the only thing the authorities here care about,” said one. “It’s the best card for the Americans to play.”

Withholding the aid was beginning to have an effect. The authorities had agreed to order a retrial in the notorious 173 Foreign Funding Case, in which a criminal court sentenced 43 employees of foreign NGOs to up to five years in jail and ordered the closure of the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, Freedom House, the International Center for Journalists and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

When the Court of Cassation announced a retrial in April this year, civil society leaders hailed this as a welcome first step. The hearing, however, has been postponed until Nov. 11. At the very least, the State Department should have waited to see progress on this case before lifting the holds.

Secretary Pompeo now has to decide by Sept. 30 whether to release a further $195 million in FMF. It’s hard to see how he can certify progress on human rights. He should recognize that the repression is not only inflicting suffering on Egyptians but also weakening U.S. nation security. Ascendant in Egypt, ISIS is recruiting in the prisons and otherwise feeding off resentment caused by government abuses. The United States can’t afford to allow Egypt to slide further into a dictatorship.

Washington needs to rethink its relationship with Cairo. Appointing an ambassador to Egypt would be a start, but real progress will happen only if the United States demands it. The Trump administration has leverage in the form of military aid. It should use it.

Brian Dooley is Senior Advisor at Human Rights First where he works to contain and counteract a U.S. retreat from global leadership on human rights.@dooley_dooley.